


if my love could keep you alive

by yunmin



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: (I mean KINDA), Ahch-To, Established Relationship, Families of Choice, Force Ghosts, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Rey Skywalker, That's Not How The Force Works
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 05:09:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12951987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yunmin/pseuds/yunmin
Summary: There’s a body lying in the Resistance’s medbay, belonging to a man who is not quite dead. There’s a lonely Jedi on a island full of grief, with an unlikely guest for company.And then there is a lonely desert scavenger, who is haunted by ghosts she can’t quite understand.Maybe together, they’ll find their way home.





	if my love could keep you alive

**Author's Note:**

> This is nonsense of the finest order, and not made to be taken entirely seriously. I know this is not how the force works. But like, imagine :D

Alone in the barren desert landscape of Jakku, Rey stops her speeder beside the wreck of an X-Wing. She hops down to investigate. Most of the X-Wing wrecks have been pretty well combed by this point, the parts that lie deep rarely worth the effort. There are better spoils.

And yet still, Rey cannot help her curiosity.

She wonders, sometimes, whether she came from pilot stock. From what she can remember of being left here, whoever did so flew away afterwards – but Rey does not know if her parents were flying the shuttle.

When she digs into guts of the X-Wing, she swears she can hear a kindly voice over her shoulder, a ghost from her past. She can never quite pin it down, whether the man she hears is one of her parents, or just some kindly soul time has taken from her. She wonders if she’ll ever know.

And so she continues to wait, for the day when someone comes back to claim her.

.

On the planet D’Qar, inside the Ileenium system, far away from Jakku and her life there, Rey sits at the side of a boy who she’s only known for a matter of days, and yet is the most important person in the Galaxy to her.

She says her goodbyes to Finn, and stands, intending to make her way out of the medbay when the occupant of one bed catches her eye. An older man lying there, seemingly unconscious, grey hair falling across his brow. He seems almost familiar to Rey, his features tugging something at the edge of her memory, conjuring up a soft voice and a smile. But Rey does not know anyone from Jakku who would end up in the Resistance’s medbay, so it must be a false echo. An illusion. “Who is that?” she asks Kalonia, her interest piqued.

Kalonia’s gaze is drawn over to the dark corner of the medbay where Rey is gesturing. “That’s Wedge Antilles.”

“I know that name.” Rey furrows her brow; why does she recognise it?

“He was one of the Rebellion’s brightest stars. He flew on both Death Star runs; the battle of Hoth, the battle of Jakku, and all number of important other missions.”

He seems so peaceful, lying there asleep. He bears no visible injuries. “What’s he doing here?”

“It’s a long story. He was the last survivor pulled from the Jedi Temple, eight years ago. By rights, he shouldn’t be alive. There’s nothing there, as far as we can tell. He’s an empty shell. And yet he’s still going somehow. He’s still breathing. As long as we feed him… he stays alive.” Kalonia takes a moment to check on his IV drip. “One of life’s great mysteries. The General’s about the only family he has left, now. Skywalker vanished before we found him.”

“What does he have to do with Skywalker?”

“They were in love, once upon a time. So when you find him, tell Luke that his boyfriend is still clinging to the land of the living. Maybe he’ll be able to use some Jedi magic to resurrect him.”

Rey scrunches her face. She’s not sure the Force works like that. But then again, she’s no expert. This entire thing seems unlikely and implausible, and maybe there is something Luke can do about it, if only he knew that it was a problem that needed fixing.

It seems that Rey has many things that she has to inform the last Jedi about.

So she stops worrying about incidental old men in medbays, and sets to leaving.

.

Skywalker is found atop a cliff, standing in the rain whilst he waits for Rey. Rey holds out the lightsaber that may or may not be part of her heritage, and offers it to him. Maybe now she will get some answers.

It takes her less than a minute to realise that she’s not welcome. “Wait!” She scrambles after him as he walks off. “Look, General Organa sent me to find you, the galaxy needs you; even if you won’t come back you have to train me, I need to know how to handle all this power.” She stumbles on a stone, attempting to keep up with Luke’s brisk pace.

“You think you know what you want, but you have no _idea_ what lurks ahead for you if you follow this path.”

“And what if I don’t? I stand by and watch the First Order burn the Galaxy down? I refuse to do that. I won’t stand by for a second longer. The General said to drag you back kicking and screaming if I had to!”

“My sister has always been stubborn.”

“You’re the one being stubborn!” Rey is fit to rage at him. “Honestly, you’re so set on this path, can’t you see what’s in front of you?”

“She’s got a point about you being stubborn, Luke.” An unexpected voice joins the argument. Rey attempts to pinpoint where it came from. She’s mystified by it’s existence; Skywalker went into exile alone. “I think you should listen to her.” The voice emanates from a wave of blue that slowly solidifies – if you can call it that – into features Rey recognises.

“You’re Wedge Antilles.” The face is ten years younger than when she last saw it, but it’s unmistakably him. In some indescribable way, he seems even more familiar to her like this than he did in the Resistance’s medbay.

“Yeah. Or well, I used to be. Not really sure I am anymore. Are you still you after you’ve died and somehow managed to cling onto this world?”

“See Rey.” Skywalker looks impossibly sad, like no time has passed since his entire world was torn to pieces, like the wounds are still fresh and bleeding hurt. “This is what awaits you when you follow this path. You’ll get the people you love killed, and then you won’t even be able to lay them to rest properly.”

“No,” Rey blurts. “No, that’s not a good enough reason. The people I love are putting themselves in danger to fight this war anyway; if I sit out, all I do is lessen their chances. And well. With all due respect, I don’t know about anyone else you might have lost, but you haven’t lost Wedge.”

Wedge shrugs. “She’s half-right. I’m still here, and I’ve made my peace with that, Luke. I can think of worse things then haunting you to the end of your days.” Luke’s expression is still despondent.

“That’s not what I mean.” Rey balls her hands up in frustration. “I saw your body lying in the Resistance medbay two weeks ago and you were still breathing.”

Luke and Wedge turn to each other, wide-eyed. “What—?”

.

After that outburst, Luke relents somewhat. He guides Rey to a little hut, what passes for a ramshackle home, and then leaves her, saying that he’ll be back in a bit, and that he will speak with her in good time.

Wedge Antilles tells her to let him go. “He’ll come back. In his own time. He’s not usually like this,” Wedge says. Rey notices that his feet leave small dents in the sand. He’s more solid than she thought. “You’re just a bit of a shock that’s all. And well. You’ve brought difficult news to hear in more ways that one.”

“I thought he might be happy to know that you were still…” Rey trails off. Alive seems an incorrect term.

“That there’s a part of me out there breathing somehow?” Wedge scuffs the sand, kicking some of it out. It disturbs the cluster of small, round creatures who are clustered by the lake shore. They slowly begin to waddle in the direction of the disturbance. “He left because of grief, you know. His life’s work had been torn down. His nephew gone to the dark. His students were dead. And then he found out I was too. I don’t think he meant to stay here. I think he just needed time to collect himself.”

“Eight years is a long time to do that,” Rey mutters.

“I’m not disputing that. I agree with you. But then I came blinkering back into existence. Which we’re still at a bit of a loss to explain. I shouldn’t be here, by all rights.”

“Dr Kalonia said the same thing about your body.”

“Glad to know I’m a miracle. You know, when my squad-mates used to joke I was unkillable, I don’t think this is what they meant.” One of the small fluffy creatures wanders over, and Wedge kneels down to scratch it on the head. He’s together enough that he can touch things, which surprises Rey. “I’m not Force sensitive. And yet here I am, a Force Ghost, which – let me tell you, Master Kenobi and Master Yoda are quite incredulous about, because most Jedi had lost the ability by the time they were all slaughtered. Luke thinks it has something to do with this planet. I’m told it’s soaked in the Force.”

He looks to Rey. Rey shrugs. This place feels different, certainly, but Rey hasn’t been on enough planets to be able to identify exactly why that is. “If Master Skywalker says so.”

“Luke thinks I might be tied here, to this place. So he didn’t want to leave, because he didn’t want to leave me. Which is ridiculous, because I’m not worth a whole galaxy. I’ve tried to tell him. I’ve tried to say that there was an entire Galaxy out there that needed his expertise, that there were kids out there who needed someone to guide them – there was a kid on Jakku, a girl named Rey, I was about to ask them to bring her in before the massacre happened, and who knows else besides. But—” Wedge finally notices that Rey’s mouth has dropped open. “What is it? Shit, what even is your name?”

“It’s Rey,” she says. “I grew up on Jakku. You—” She searches her memory. That ghost of a man, who’s haunted her dreams – could he be Wedge? She studies Wedge’s face, how familiar it has seemed, and finally finds a recollection; a man who’d wandered into Niima outpost. She’d been eleven. It had been clear he didn’t belong. The details, long hazy, are suddenly sharp. He’d accompanied her out to the wastes, helped her disassemble a downed X-Wing, joked about the irony of it. When he’d left, he’d argued with Plutt – Rey had never discovered why. In the time he was there, she’d become almost fond of him. As fond of anyone as she’s ever been, until Finn came into her life. “I know you.”

Wedge looks intensely uncomfortable. “Fuck.”

.

When Luke returns – with Chewbacca and Artoo in tow, somehow – Wedge is busy introducing Rey to the Porgs, the small round birds that litter the island and are very friendly. They don’t seem to mind that Wedge isn’t actually real, and clamber all over him as he laughs and smiles about it.

Rey jumps up when she sees Luke. Chewbacca roars a greeting. “I found him, yeah. And he’s going to train me. Aren’t you?” She stares Luke down, trying not to give him any choice in the matter.

“We should begin with the basics, but beyond that—”

“Luke, she’s little Rey,” Wedge says. “The girl from Jakku. The one who I should have brought to you, had Ben not – well, killed isn’t the right word anymore, but whatever – me. Had things happened differently, she’d have been your student anyway.”

“Had you brought her to me, she’d have been killed too.”

“Kriffing hell, Luke, is this what this is about? You got people killed. I’ve got people killed! We killed people. We fought a war Luke, people _died_ , I know you understand that so stop being so caught up in your misery that you forget that we chose this path. She is choosing this path. The Force, your almighty Force, it has brought us here, beyond logic and reason and all common sense, it has put the pair of you together on this Island where the Force was born for a _reason_ , and we’ve all got to live with that. So train her. If you don’t, if you refuse to take this opportunity to fight for what I know you know is right – then you aren’t the man I fell in love with.” Luke crumples under the wave of Wedge’s fury. “I love you. I’ve loved you for a long time, through every hardship we have faced and faced together, but if you fall here; well. I guess that’s it.” Wedge storms off, the dramatic effect slightly hindered by the line of Porgs who waddle after him.

“Wedge—” Luke calls, but it’s too late. Wedge has vanished back into the Force.

Chewie roars in confusion, and Rey looks up sympathetically. “Oh. You can’t see him. Or you, Artoo. Wedge Antilles is here. Or he was.” Rey gives Luke a pointed look. “I really don’t want to be the reason you two break up.”

Luke shifts, and runs a hand through his hair. In that moment, he loses the mantle of weary Jedi Master that he’s worn as a defensive armour since the moment Rey arrived, and he looks like an ordinary man, getting slightly on in years but just a man, who’s uncertain about what his next steps should be. As his resolve stiffens, Rey thinks she can even see the bright young man Wedge Antilles must have fallen in love with, the spark that had set the Rebellion aflame.

“You won’t,” he says, and there’s a smile in his voice. “We’ve weathered worst scrapes than this. Come. He’ll show back up eventually, and those of us with our physical bodies with us need to eat. And then we can meditate, and start your training properly in the morning. I can’t make any promises, but we will try.”

.

That evening, Rey sits down to what almost feels like a family dinner, only it’s… well. One lonely Jedi master, his Force ghost boyfriend, a Wookiee, an Astromech droid and a desert scavenger feel like an unlikely family. And half the participants don’t even eat, which makes it even odder.

Rey is still immensely grateful to be here, to have found herself in this place, surrounded by people who she believes may some day care about her, or they already do.

It gets even odder when another man materialises at the dinner table. He wears an outfit similar to Luke’s robes, and his hair and beard are largely white, though they are flecked with what Rey thinks might be an auburn colour. It’s difficult to tell through the blue cast the Force Ghosts have.

“Rey,” he says, looking at her. Rey has heard that voice before. When she was in Maz Kanata’s basement, having that vision – this is the man who spoke to her. “You found your way.”

“You knew she was coming?” Luke questions.

“More to the point, did you know that apparently I’m not a Force Ghost and am actually a disembodied spirit, because my body’s currently in the Resistance’s medbay?” Wedge’s tone is more indignant.

The look on the man’s face indicates that this, at least was a surprise to him. “Your case does indeed get stranger and stranger day by day, Mr Antilles.” He turns to Luke. “Yes. I knew that Rey was on her way. But that course only became clear recently. The Force has not been willing to co-operate recently. You know that.”

“Who are you?” Rey interjects, before this conversation continues any further.

He turns to her and in that moment, he looks an awful lot like Luke; the same expression of impossible sadness. “Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.” For just a split second, Rey can see him as he once was; a proud knight, a hero of the old Republic. For every tale she heard about Luke Skywalker, she heard two about Kenobi, the man who single-handedly fought the Clone Wars – or so they say. “I was Luke’s teacher, and guardian, for a time. And I will watch over you, the same way I did him, if you wish it.”

Wedge coughs, not at all conspicuously. “Fine job you did there,” he mutters, and Luke responds with a withering glare. “Sorry, sorry, I know everyone was just doing that they thought best.” Wedge waves a hand in such a way that Rey is utterly unconvinced that he actually means that.

“You face a difficult path,” Kenobi says to Rey. “I only offer what little help I can give.”

Rey wonders how whatever lies ahead can possibly be worse than what she’s already faced in her life. “I would like that very much.” She looks around the table. “I want whatever help any of you can offer me. I think we will need it, all together, to defeat this.”

.

Luke trains Rey. In fits and starts, and requiring occasional goading from Wedge, they progress. Luke brings Wedge in to help, as well. Rey’s still a little unclear about what he spent his time doing, between the end of the first Galactic Civil War and the destruction of the Jedi Academy, but he evidently taught at one point. He and Luke make a good team, balancing each other’s worst habits.

Rey learns a lot in those months.

She learns how to feel the Force, how to navigate by it, see its light. She learns how to fight, and when not to fight. She learns how to use the lightsaber that the Galaxy had placed into her hands.

She’s still uncertain about where she fits. Luke is too. Her power, the way it falls from her in cracks and starts, shaking the very ground beneath them sometimes, scares them both. But Rey thinks she will grow into it, given time.

Eventually, it becomes clear that the islands of Ahch-To can teach them no more, and it’s time to take the Millennium Falcon back to the Resistance, and join the fight there. It takes Luke a week to come to terms with the idea.

Most of his problems with it are about Wedge. Wedge is blasé in the face of leaving the planet; as far as he’s concerned, he’s anchored to Luke, and he’ll go wherever Luke goes. But there’s still a fear that they might be leaving him behind.

“For star’s sake, Luke, you can always come back!” Rey hears Wedge yell, at one point, and that does eventually settle it.

They load everything and everyone onto the Falcon. Everyone includes about a dozen Porgs who vehemently refuse to let Wedge fly away by himself. Rey stifles her amusement as he loads them individually onto the Falcon, and then chases after one when it decides that it really needs to know what’s in Han’s old smuggling compartments.

She focuses herself on getting them ready to take off, but Luke is radiating fear at the idea that he might be leaving Wedge behind. Rey finds herself glancing back, wondering if she should go and reassure him, only to find that Wedge is already there, solid enough to hold Luke in his arms and then initiate a facsimile of a kiss. She averts her eyes back to the controls.

As they fly away from Ahch-To, every moment is tense. Wedge’s certainty had buoyed Rey, but she wonders if at any moment he’ll be snatched from them, snapped back to the planet below.

On their third hyperspace jump, several hundred light-years from the system, they finally start to breathe freely again.

Looks like they aren’t getting rid of Wedge any time soon.

.

The Falcon arrives back at the Resistance’s new base in the middle of the night, local time. It means that the crowd to meet them is small. Luke still hangs back in the shadow of the Falcon, afraid to confront the people he abandoned all those years ago. Rey leaves him to it, and goes to greet General Organa and then throws herself into Finn’s waiting arms. When they part, Luke still has not emerged.

It’s Wedge who descends first, still cast pale and blue. He drags Luke forward and down the Falcon’s ramp, until Luke finally moves of his own volition and catches up so that he’s walking side by side with Wedge, instead of two steps behind him.

“Ah—” General Organa has a smile on her face as she greets her brother and his partner. “Suddenly, a whole lot of things make sense.”

“Who’s that?” Finn asks, still holding onto Rey, a comforting arm around her shoulders.

“You can see him?” Rey supposes she shouldn’t be surprised. You need to have a degree of Force Sensitivity to see Wedge, but Finn has displayed that in spades. “He’s Wedge Antilles.”

“Isn’t he—”

“His body is lying in the Resistance medbay. It’s a long story.”

Luke and the General hug, a reunion between two long lost siblings. And then the General raises a wry eyebrow at Wedge. “Somehow I’m not surprised. If anyone could defy the odds, it would be you.”

“Think they’ll revive that blasted holoshow? Wedge Antilles, back from the dead!”

“Still as handsome and with even more snark?” Luke cracks a grin at the in-joke, before settling back into his usual somberness. “I’m sorry,” he says to Leia. “Force Lei, I’m sorry. I should have stuck it out.”

“We all should have done a lot of things. Come on. Let’s get you settled, and we’ll work out a plan in the morning. Unless you want to go and check on how your body is going without you, Wedge? I’m afraid he’s a little older, though I’ll let Luke judge whether you’ve suffered for it.”

.

Rey finds herself following the strange deputation that goes along to the medbay. She thinks they should all get some sleep, and deal with the issue in the morning; Wedge’s situation is a curiosity that has so far defied any rational expectation.

It feels like a moment that should be private. Everyone but Wedge and Luke, the two it matters most to, has seen Wedge’s body lying in the medbay recently.

Wedge draws to a halt a full three metres from the bed, unable to advance any further. It leaves Luke to go on alone. Leia keeps everyone else back, sending Finn and Connix away and shooing a couple of young ensigns that have congregated. Rey stands with Leia a moment, wondering if she has any place in this at all.

“You’re older,” Luke says.

“It’s been eight years,” Wedge says. “Still handsome though?”

“Still handsome.” Luke reaches out to brush a hand over Wedge’s body’s forehead, pushing long strands of hair out of his face. “Come and look, love.”

Wedge remains staunch in his position.

Rey decides to go to him. She stands by his side, and places her hand about where he would hold it. His fingers slide through hers. “Shit,” he says. “I’m not ready for this.”

“I don’t think anyone would be,” Rey says.

“I can’t—” Rey turns her head, trying to think of words to calm and soothe him, but he’s barely there. As soon as she summons something up, he’s vanished completely.

“Damn,” Rey mutters to herself.

.

Wedge stays missing.

They may know where his body is, and his spirit is a part of the all encompassing Force, but he’s not there anymore. Wedge doesn’t respond to any of Luke’s requests for him. Rey thinks he’s hiding. She thinks she glimpses him once, on a near-unreachable cliff that overhangs the Resistance’s new base, a couple of Porgs in hand, but he’s gone once she spots him.

Rey guesses it’s pretty difficult to come face-to-face with your own mortality. There’s no precedent for this situation. She and Luke throw themselves into the Resistance’s war effort, helping coordinate a plan for General Organa. The pilots mill around Rey like she’s something other-worldly, a blazing saviour who will lead them all to victory. Sometimes, they will ask her questions about Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles; some of it is professional curiosity about the ace pair of the Galactic Civil War, some of it desire for gossip. Rey takes to telling the most audacious lies in response, hoping that it’ll prompt Wedge into appearing just so he can rebuke them.

Luke misses his partner, and Rey gets a glimpse that she never wanted to see of the man who was driven away by Kylo Ren’s actions, who thought that there was nothing good left in the galaxy for him. He shakes it off, but it seems he has a stubborn streak of melancholy that only Wedge can ease. He visits Wedge’s bedside daily, even though they all know that Wedge’s body is just an empty shell.

For nine weeks, Wedge stays gone.

Then there’s a battle. A big one, that rages across space and the planet down below. Rey and Luke fly right into the heart of it, and charge into the fighting on the ground.

They come back alive, but the same cannot be said for all the Resistance. They incur heavy casualties that day. It’s a victory that was worth the sacrifice, but they paid the price for it.

Rey and Luke stumble back to the temporary base. When they arrive, they see Wedge’s ghost wandering about the surviving Starfighter Pilots, offering a hand and a kind word. He walks amongst them with the spirit of their commander, as a man who understands implicitly the sacrifice they have made that day.

Luke is patient, and waits for Wedge to come to him. And he does, eventually, looking a little sheepish. “Guess I’ve lost my right to criticise you for running away,” Wedge says with a shrug. “Sorry. I know I made you worry.” Luke just pulls him into an embrace and holds him tight.

.

Wedge comes back to the base with them. They don’t drag him into the medbay straight away; Kalonia has her hands full dealing with all the casualties from the battle, setting up rehabilitation programmes for those who will be able to fight again and sending home those who can’t. He takes to training with her and Luke again, like they did on Ahch-To. It feels right, in many ways.

Rey and Luke are quietly meditating one morning when they feel it. A ripple that slowly emerges from the force, followed by a crashing wave that knocks both of them off centre.

“What was _that_?” Rey asks, gasping for breath. She’s never felt anything like it before.

“Neither have I.” Luke responds to words that Rey guesses she said out loud. She’s not sure. All of her senses feel foggy right now. He closes his eyes to try and concentrate for just a moment. Rey feels his terror before he voices it. “Wedge—”

Right. Unexplainable thing in the Force, Wedge fits that description.

Luke breaks his meditation fully to rush towards the medbay, quicker than Rey has ever seen him move. She follows him, almost as worried.

When they arrive at the medbay, everything is chaos. Machines are beeping wildly. Kalonia and three nurses surround Wedge’s bed, and Kalonia’s beating his chest as the machines sound out something dangerously close to a flatline. “Dammit Wedge, breathe! You’ve lasted this long,” Kalonia mutters, before yelling for electrical stimulation.

Rey holds her master’s hand tight as Kalonia tries to bring Wedge back. It takes two attempts, but then his heart is beating steadily, somehow, a miracle. The nurses all step back and Kalonia and a Two-One-Bee droid go to work, attempting to stabilise him.

Luke doesn’t move. He keeps his eyes fixated on Wedge’s pale form, looking old and vulnerable and scared. And then Kalonia calls out for him, and Rey has to push him over to Wedge’s bedside. “Sit with him,” Kalonia orders. She gestures at the bed, something she never does – in the days before Rey left, she and Poe were forever being chased off Finn’s bed. Luke takes a position, and Kalonia gently lifts Wedge so that his head is lying on Luke’s thigh. “I can’t say I understand the Force, but you are that man’s lifeline, his connection to the real world, and if anyone can keep him here, you can.”

Luke nods. He brushes his hand over Wedge’s scalp, fingers tangling in Wedge’s long hair. “What happened?”

“Body and soul got reunited,” Kalonia says, busying about, checking readouts. “Near as I can tell anyway. One moment, Wedge’s ‘ghost’ was standing over his body, next thing we knew he was nowhere to be seen and simultaneously crashing. I’m reading brainwaves. Someone’s back in that body.”

“Oh love.” Luke’s expression is tender. Rey goes to find a chair. She’s not leaving until she knows the outcome of this. Luke needs her. Wedge needs her. They’ve done so much for her, and she won’t leave them alone in this.

“I’m going to give it six hours,” Kalonia says. “If he comes round on his own, then we’re good. If not, I think we’re going to have to find an expert and induce a coma. I don’t like this.”

“Thank you,” Rey says to her. Luke doesn’t respond. Rey knows he’s dropped into the Force, searching for the spark of Wedge he can guide back to the surface.

.

Five hours and forty-five minutes later, Wedge sputters back to life.

In that time, the dozen Porgs that came with them off Ahch-To have found their way to Wedge’s room, and have taken up residence on his bed. Kalonia clearly disapproves, but this is so far outside what she knows that she lets it go. Leia swings by, with Connix bearing food for Rey and Luke. Rey eats. Luke doesn’t.

Wedge’s eyes open first. He blinks several times. “Hey,” Luke says, whilst Rey goes to call Kalonia back over. “Hey love. It’s okay. I’m here. You gave us all a scare there.”

Wedge opens his mouth. A rumbling comes out of it, but no words. He tenses in fright.

“Hello Wedge. Do you remember who I am? Blink once for yes, twice for no.” Kalonia steps up. Wedge blinks once. “That’s a start. I know this is probably difficult, but you’ve been apart from your body for eight years; reintegrating is bound to be a little complicated. In addition, your body is coming out of what is essentially an eight year coma. Most of your muscle will have atrophied. It’ll take a while for you to adjust back to your full physical strength. But it will come back. With rest, and then a bit of hard work. You understand that.”

Wedge blinks again. He gathers himself up, and then opens his mouth again. “Luke—” His voice is low and croaky, barely there but it’s enough.

“I love you, you daft fool.” Luke is crying. “I was so scared that I might have lost you. But you’re here!” Luke pauses to wipe some of the tears off his face. “Don’t you worry about a thing. I’m going to be here for every moment. Just like you were there for me.”

“Love you too,” Wedge manages to say back.

.

Wedge does not really take well to his newly planet-bound body, especially given that it’s so frail. He’s used to being able to flit in and out of existence relatively as he pleases. Now he can’t even walk.

It takes a week for him to be even able to sit up in bed. Luke might have endless patience with Wedge, but Wedge does not have endless patience with himself. His mind is still sharp, and he finds his old body limiting. Every day he regains a little strength though, progressing quicker than the prognosis he was given. He manages to gather to the strength to lean up and capture Luke’s lips in a kiss about two weeks in, and from that point, he seems to understand that, eventually, this struggle will be worth it.

They find him a chair, once Kalonia clears him to sit up for a whole day. “This old thing again,” Wedge grumbles, as he grumbles at the doctor who’s taken over his physiotherapy. “Look, I know the drill, worryingly I’m an old hand at the old, can’t walk business.”

“I’ve heard all about it from Snap,” Penn Tyrest grins wide. “He has some stories to tell about what you did on Akiva.”

“I could tell you some things about the stupid things he did on Akiva, let me tell you,” Wedge shoots back. A consequence of Wedge being laid up in bed is that he’s had a lot of time to talk. And Rey is learning just how many of the people in the Resistance he knew as children, or trained at the academy, or guided them in some way. He’s got a story about almost anyone on base over thirty.

The chair allows him to get moving all over the base. He starts attending Luke and Rey’s early morning training sessions, when he can manage it. It’s nice to have him there, watching them participating in his own way – mostly by badgering Luke about things.

It’s pleasant. Rey knows that every moment she spends here is training to fight, to battle an evil that threatens the entire galaxy, but she also enjoys the process, spending time with these two men who care for her deeply. Helping Wedge get back on his feet, incorporating him into training sessions and morning meditation alongside them.

Her life may be happening in a war zone, but this is the nearest thing she’s ever known to peace.

.

In revenge for a particularly embarrassing story that Wedge tells about Snap, Snap digs out recordings of _Antilles: Pilot_ , the holoshow that they made about Wedge, and demands that everyone watches it.

The process involves cushions and snacks. Rey finds herself nestled between Finn and Poe, and it’s quite enjoyable, even though Rey is completely baffled by the series. Wedge is cool, but she’s not necessarily sure that she would make an entire entertainment show based on his life.

“Having fun?” Poe asks after they finish the opening episode.

“It all seems a little implausible?” Finn shrugs. He seems quite content to just sit, Rey curled into his chest. “And like, why did they make it about an actual person? If they wanted dashing adventures in space, you could just make someone up?”

Wedge has grumbled consistently since he discovered that Snap still had copies. From what Rey hears, the stories in the show – at least the first season – are all based on things Wedge actually did.

“Well, it’s a spin-off, kinda?” Poe explains. “Either of you seen _The Luke Skywalker Adventures_?” Both Rey and Finn shake their heads. “We’ll have to watch that at some point, it’s good fun. A little different from this, a bit more ridiculous.” Finn’s eyebrows raise; he thinks this show is plenty ridiculous already. “Anyway, they did an episode where Wedge helped out on a mission of Luke’s, and it was _wildly_ popular. It’s probably the finest episode of the series, but I think the thing that did it was that the guy they hired to play Wedge was incredibly charismatic, in a very quiet way – it’s quite something to watch – and his chemistry with the actor who played Luke was off the charts. They brought Wedge back for a couple more episodes, but they never quite worked out how to work him into the show properly; the entire point was that Luke was wandering the galaxy alone. Bringing his boyfriend along sort of ruined that.”

“And—” Jessika Pava butts in. “Well, Luke had maintained a fairly quiet profile after the war was over. He went and researched and taught. Meanwhile Wedge was off doing feats of daring do. I think someone may have sent the studio a list of his antics.”

“Wait. You can’t tell me that this is a show grounded in reality?” Finn is very perplexed. Given that Wedge had spent the episode they’d just watched instigating a slave revolt, resulting in the overthrow of local government, Rey can kinda see that it might me a little far-fetched.

“The revolt of Cassias Six is an actual historical event that Wedge was definitely there for, though I think the show might be taking liberties with how much he participated in it.” Finn blinks bug-eyed at Poe’s explanation. “Anyway, shush, Snap’s putting on another one.”

The second episode they watch is a piloting adventure, the incorporates Tycho Celchu as Wedge’s man with the New Republic, and their investigation into an abandoned ship floating at the edge of a planetary belt. It contains numerous shenanigans, and a number of injokes that send all the pilots into hysterics.

After that, Jess wrestles the controls off Snap and puts on what she declares to be her favourite episode.

In it, Wedge encounters a young force-sensitive teenager, living on his own, scavenging in a big city. The boy is reluctant at first, but Wedge slowly gains his trust, helping the boy claim back a sentimental item from a gang leader who had stolen it. And then, Wedge invites the boy to train at Luke Skywalker’s Jedi academy, and takes him to meet Master Skywalker himself.

When it finishes, with the boy exploring the Jedi Academy and Wedge and Luke smiling in the background, Rey is shocked by the tears that are streaming down her face.

“Rey?” Finn sits up. “Rey, you’re crying. Rey. What’s wrong?”

Rey tries to wipe the tears away, but they keep coming. She hauls her knees up, close to her chest, and tries to keep her breath steady. “It’s just—” Her voice breaks. “That could have been me. I could have had that.” She falls into open sobs as Finn pulls her into his arms.

She cries for what feels like hours. She’s known for a while that Kylo Ren stole a lot of things, from a lot of people, when he destroyed the Jedi Academy, killed Luke’s students and almost killed Wedge. But it’s always been in the abstract. Until now she has never truly understood what she lost, the chance to be a part of that family. Wedge was days away from returning for her, from taking her off Jakku and spiriting her away to a new life.

Poe Dameron helps rub circles onto her back, calming her down. “It’s a nice fantasy. Wedge helped a lot of kids.”

“It’s not a _fantasy_ ,” Rey insists, through her tears. “He _found_ me. He found me. He was going to take me to Luke’s academy as a kid, once he paid off Plutt.” Rey wonders if she’d have gone with him; she’d been so convinced that her family would come back for her. But she’d have liked the option. She knows that Wedge would never have abandoned her alone, even if she’d chosen to stay on Jakku. “I could have been that kid.”

.

It had taken a while to convince Finn and Poe that she was alright, but eventually they trust that Rey just needs a little space. She meditates out on the cliff edge, in the company of a few of the Porgs, including the one that Rey’s identified as her favourite, a grumpy older one that they’ve all nicknamed Han due to his resemblance to a certain smuggler friend of theirs.

Kylo Ren has stolen three potential father-figures from her. Three. The thought makes Rey seethe. He’s done a hell of a lot worse than that, in the grand scheme of things, but currently Rey feels that loss like a fissure that cuts her near in two. She stands above her anger, knowing that all it would take is one small step to fall into it, let it control her.

But she doesn’t. She steps back, and goes instead to find Wedge and Luke. They are still here. They survived all the mess, and Rey found her way to them eventually. She knocks on their door before realising it’s the middle of the night, and there’s every chance they’re sleeping peacefully.

Luke appears at the door approximately five minutes after she knocks, wearing a robe pulled roughly over sleep clothes. “Rey?” He takes in her red-rimmed eyes. “Is everything alright?”

“No.” Rey feels the tears welling at her eyes again. She feels Luke’s worry flare up. “It’s nothing bad—” Nothing serious, she means, not an attack or news of another tragedy. “I just—” Her tears are wet against her cheeks, spilling freely.

“Bring her in,” Wedge says from the bed. Luke puts his arm around Rey’s shoulders as he guides her into the room. Rey ends up sat on their bed. “Rey, darling, what is it?”

“You were going to rescue me!” Rey forces out through sobs. “You were going to help me get somewhere safe, and give me somewhere I belonged, and you’d have been _good_ at it, and I didn’t get that—”

“Oh Rey.” Wedge Antilles pulls her into a hug, and Rey curls up in the bed, tucked safe in his arms. He’s a very solid lump of comfort, just the thing Rey needs right now. She sobs into his chest, releasing a flood of emotions she’s tucked away for so long. Luke joins them, and Rey finds herself enveloped on both sides, just as Finn and Poe had done. She feels safe here. “It’s not fair. It’s not fair what happened to you. Whoever left you out there did a bad thing. But you’re here now. We’re here. We’re all together, thanks to some miracle of fate and luck, and you helped bring me home and I will be forever grateful to you.”

“You gave me the man I love back,” Luke says. “You brought _hope_ , Rey. I see it in you in every moment. You’ve done so much good with the life you have been given.”

“We’ll always be here for you, Rey,” Wedge says.

Rey just lets herself be soothed by their words, their presence, and she cries herself to sleep there in Wedge’s arms.

.

The next time Rey faces down the First Order, and Kylo Ren, she does so with a man she now calls _father_ at her back, whilst the man she has taken to calling _dad_ commands a starfighter offensive from the bridge of a capital ship orbiting above them.

Lightsabers clash, and Rey falls into the fight like she was born to it, gathering the force around her and making it _sing_ in joy for her. Ren fights back, panting and inelegant and sloppy. “You are nothing,” he tells her, trying to bring his blade down to bear on her. “You were born from nothing and you will become nothing, you nameless slip of a girl, _nothing_.”

Rey grits her teeth and battles him off, blue lightsaber in her hand, the heritage that Kylo Ren could never hope to claim hers to command. “My name,” she says, parrying his strike, “is Rey Antilles-Skywalker.” She twirls the blade that she holds in hand, a lightsaber used now by three generations of Skywalkers. “And you are nothing but a bump in the road of my journey, and you will _pay_ for what you have done.”

Family is not merely defined by blood; Rey has chosen hers. Just as Ren has made his choice.

And now he will pay for it.


End file.
